I have an idea. Since I REALLY love the "getting there" part and I'm not to lazy how about a phone at the top of every drainage so when we (unlazy) fishermen hike in and fish our way to the top we can call out and have a helicopter (running on taxpayer money mind you) pick us up so we don't have to hike back out? Sounds good to me and I've made mention of how I would pay $1,000 to have a helicopter pick me up while all red faced at the top of a ridge and looking 3 more ridges over to where my truck sits.

You fellows have had some good-natured fun with this, but underlying it is a vein of seriousness. It is pretty clear to me that Dale Ditmanson intends to go through with the proposal for charging backcountry campers per night AND to register to camp. I've fought this ill-advised proposal from the get-go (as has Crockett of this forum and others), but there has been obfuscation, misinformation, and more coming out of Sugarlands on it. Never mind that the comments ran about 19 to 1 against the proposal and that it was based on a false premise from the outset (a statement that the backcountry is overcrowded, which is demonstrably false), every indication is that it will be implemented. This will be a big negative for backcountry anglers who camp, and I also fear it may be a "foot in the door" approach on other fees.
Jim Casadawww.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

Jim, your insight is 20-20. You read my intentions like a book. It concerns me that if asked which "works best for you?" 1) camp and fish the Smokies with your kids or 2) just keep them in the very latest video games and smart phone, and watch every episode of Inked (A&E) with them, most, I fear, would have to choose the latter.

As things are presently, if, at the new Oconaluftee Visitor Center, an eager-eyed young angler would ask about fishing, I'm not sure he/she would receive the enthusiastic response I feel would be deserved.

Now on a more practical note, perhaps Orvis or Bass Pro Shops, both with outlets in the foothills, could find a way to make the existing Fontana shuttles more affordable for the rest of us. I will have to defer to you, Crockett and others on continuing to fight the backcountry fees, etc., mess for us.... and thanks.

I know that there are miles of trails in the Park that will never see my boot prints and my standard reasoning is that is there is not a place to fish at the end of the hike I am not interested. Maybe the only hike I might take is to LeConte but you have to give up a day's fishing to make that hike and I know there are fish in that creek you have to walk over to get started up the Alum trail...

Rog1--I like your way of thinking even though my days of hiking to places like Three Forks are pretty much behind me. However, I would advise putting your energy into a stream other than the one draining the Alum Cave Bluffs area. It was hit in a particularly bad way by the great cloudburst/storm of 1951, with huge exposure of Anakeesta formation, and it has never recovered. There are a few fish in its lowest reaches but Steve and Matt (parik bioogists) tell me it is virtually a creek of the dead.On the other hand, Walker Camp Prong at the parking lot trailhead is another story.Easily accessible and wide open (for its elevation) with specks to be had.
Jim Casadawww.jimcasadaoutdoors.com

My pappy alway said, "Walking isn't crowded." There is always shank's mare or ankle express. I would love to fish more of the backcountry but don't have the time or physical capabilities now.

Sounds as though you had a wise pappy, but walking Eagle Creek & Hazel Creek Trails would first require no small amount of swimming. Otherwise, one must pony up a small fortune to be ferried back and forth or... face the real possibility of, in my case, my jon boat being purloined by a bunch of daggone poachers.

I know that there are miles of trails in the Park that will never see my boot prints and my standard reasoning is that is there is not a place to fish at the end of the hike I am not interested. Maybe the only hike I might take is to LeConte but you have to give up a day's fishing to make that hike and I know there are fish in that creek you have to walk over to get started up the Alum trail...

Rog1, as you are probably already aware, there are a couple of alternative trails up the north slope of the grand 'ol mount, one of which parallels a stream said to hold a decent concentration of a particular species of fish... all of which shall remain anonymous.